10 Miles = Hike 100 Challenge

 It took a little longer than last year, but I finished the 2026 Hike 100 Challenge today. It wasn't planned, but it seems fitting that I accomplished it at the place the trail is closest to my house.

I pulled this off with a ten-mile hike on the North Country Trail today. In fact, it's the first ten-mile hike I've done this year. I needed to accomplish one for sure before I commit to my hopeful hike this fall.

Well, I did it. And I did it in 88% humidity. The temperature was decent, but I was soaking wet when I got home and not because it rained. It WAS supposed to rain, but it didn't. My knees and hips are tired, but not impossibly painful, and the joints didn't seize up like concrete after I got home.

Two nice finds on the trail. This is a group of Inky Cap mushrooms.

Best find of all was a really large blue racer. They aren't endangered, but they are becoming more rare.

Here's a closer look at his head. He was right beside the trail, but he let me pass.

I didn't do much else today. I figured the long hike would be enough. It took me just over 3.5 hours. I did take one snack break, so that was pretty close to a 3 mile/hour pace. I chose the route on purpose because it has decent elevation change. Not sure about all the ups and downs in between, but overall, I climbed 260 feet from beginning to turnaroud. If I'd been willing to make it an 11-mile hike I could have climbed another 130 feet. Maybe another day. That's a fair amount of elevation change for around here, so even though it's such a familiar hike to me, it's a good workout.

Miles walked in 2026: 287.2
Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 108.7= Complete
Onekama Challenge: 99.0 miles! I'll complete that tomorrow.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. Wingleton Rd to 8th St and back. 10 miles

See 2025 Hike 100

National Trails Day Event

The first Saturday of June is always National Trails Day. Our NCTA chapter had a hike, a potluck lunch and a meeting with election of officers.

I didn't do a good job of getting pictures of anything except the hike. I didn't do a really good job of leading the hike. Anyway, I believe we had 25 hikers and a dog.

We met at Marilla Trailhead and took the long spur down to the main NCT. Then we went to Eddington Bridge, a nice destination, but I didn't take pictures there either (you've seen it here quite often).

There is a really nice view of the Manistee River Valley from that spur

There had been a request to go to the Suspension Bridge, called "Little Mac." The Forest Service recently reopened the bridge after a lengthy time of repairs. And we hadn't been there on a group hike for quite a while.

Oops... I got off the main trail and took us down a well-travelled fisherman's path. It was very scenic along the river. No one was really mad, but it added about a mile to our hike.

We finally looped back around to the connector trail and made it to the bridge. The Forest Service says it's the second-largest suspension bridge in Michigan.

The bridge isn't actually on the NCT. It's on the connector trail between the NCT and the Manistee River Trail. This is the most popular loop trail in Michigan and on a nice summer weekend it's always very busy. Lots of hikers, anglers, paddlers, campers.

Then we returned to Marilla TH and went to Big Bear Sportsman's Club building for a nice potluck lunch and elections.

Did I take a picture of the new officers? No. I got talking and forgot.
President: Dan Driesinga
Vice-President: Glen VanAntwerp
Secretary: Monica Hatch
Treasurer: Laura Acton

We really thank these people for stepping up!

I managed to do a couple of things after I got home, but hadn't planned on doing a lot. I figured I'd be tired. I'm not very tired from the hiking, but the problem is, I'm so excited about this upcoming Adirondack adventure that I didn't fall asleep until 4:30 and had to get up at 6:30. So I think I'm about done now. I should be able to finish the final prep tomorrow without any trouble.

Miles hiked in 2025: 212.8. Hike 100 Challenge (only a short piece of what we did today was actual NCT): 94.6. I'll reach my 100 the first day in the Adirondacks!

Manistee County, MI, Marilla TH to Eddington Bridge, back to Manistee River Trail connector, to the Little Mac, and back to Marilla, with a detour, about 6 miles

See Electronic Maps Training